She moved to Los Angeles with the dream of working in the entertainment industry.

She was smart, ambitious, hard working and by 25, she had an office with a view, an assistant who answered her phone, an expense account, a real salary, power lunches, television industry screenings, clients etc. She dated and attended industry events.

From the outside, it looked like she "had it all." There was just one problem: she was absolutely miserable.

This is Christine Hassler's story before quit her prestigious career and turned her life around to become a spiritual life coach, keynote speaker and best-selling author.

In her book, Expectations Hangover, Christine Hassler shares what to do when life throws a curveball or does not live up to our expectations.

Today, I want to share the top 14 inspiring lessons and insights from her book.

I hope you will find these lessons inspiring and insightful.

#1. Keeping your feelings inside is like attempting to hold an inflated beach ball under water

"Emotions need a way to get out.

If you do not express them, they will find another exit! The long-term drain on your energy from suppressing and avoiding your emotions is far greater than the short-term pain of acknowledging, feeling, and dealing with them.

Keeping your feelings inside is like attempting to hold an inflated beach ball under water.

You can wrestle with it for a while; but sooner or later you lose your grasp on it, and it pops up, creating a huge splash and knocking you right in the face."

- Christine Hassler

#2. Our story becomes the lens through which we start to see everything in our life, and we tend to attract circumstances that fit with our story

"The vast majority of what and how we think is based on a story we have about ourselves, others, and how life works.

We began to construct this story at a young age, based on things we saw, heard, or experienced.

We then formed judgments about what happened.

Those judgments created clusters of thoughts. The thoughts then created a belief system containing expectations about ourselves, others, and life in general.

Our story becomes the lens through which we start to see everything in our life, and we tend to attract circumstances that fit with our story — even if we don’t consciously want them — because we expect them."

- Christine Hassler

#3. Believe you are enough, worthy, lovable and deserving

"The most powerful attractor is our belief system.

You can create beautiful poster boards full of images of what you want and affirm every day that you are available for an incredibly successful, passionate career or a loving relationship; but if you don’t truly believe you are enough, worthy, lovable, and deserving, then attracting a great career or relationship into your life may be more challenging.

Consider what limiting beliefs you have that contradict your desires and upgrade them to beliefs that are in alignment with what you want to attract.”

- Christine Hassler

#4. Healing occurs when you are being fully authentic and vulnerable

"Anything we keep inside because we judge it as dark is transformed the moment we bring it into the light.

In moments of vulnerability, where we are being fully authentic by sharing our innermost experience, healing can occur."

- Christine Hassler

#5. Want to overcome shame? Be vulnerable and reveal what you are terrified of being 'found out' for

"Shame often stands as the guard at the gate to vulnerability.

The incredibly painful feeling of shame is based on a misunderstanding of a perceived flaw that we believe must stay hidden. The way to get through shame is by stepping into vulnerability and revealing what we are terrified of being “found out” for.

We all want to know that we are loved “even if ” we have these dark, scary, shameful feelings and thoughts.”

- Christine Hassler

#6. If you want to change the direction your thoughts you have to create new neural pathways in your brain

"Visualize a house in the middle of a really overgrown field.

See yourself in a truck that is a football field’s distance from the house. Your job is to drive the truck to the house. On your first trip it’s a bumpy ride, as you have to get through all the weeds, bushes, and rocks. You are holding on to the steering wheel tightly and are highly focused on your destination.

Now imagine you take the same route day after day. Over time the wheels create a path in the field, and eventually, the truck will naturally gravitate toward the path you’ve carved by driving the same route over and over. It would not require much steering or effort at all.

But say you wanted to create a different path to the house.

The first time you steered the truck off the grooves of the path you already made, it would once again be a bumpy ride. You’d have to steer with focus to get the truck off the easier, well-worn path. But if you took the new route day after day, a new path would form that would eventually feel as natural as the first path you carved.

Your brain is like the field, and your thoughts are like the truck.

If you want to change the direction your thoughts naturally gravitate toward, you are going to have to consciously steer them off their natural course and create new neural pathways in your brain.

As you mentally rehearse new beliefs, you install more neurological hardware and put new circuits in place — think of it as a better hardware system for your mind!”

- Christine Hassler

#7. When you are overwhelmed, simply ask yourself 'What's the one step I can take that's aligned with my long term vision'

"We feel overwhelmed when we have a big or distant vision of something without knowing the steps to take to get there.

Instead of moving into our proactive Scientist mode, we become paralyzed by having too much to do, and we feel incompetent or incapable of doing it. It’s great to have a long term vision, but if you are looking too far ahead, it is natural to feel overwhelmed because your brain is trying to process all the steps you have to take to get there.

Imagine standing at the bottom of the staircase, staring up at the second floor and contemplating how you are going to get there.

Rather than taking a running leap to see how many steps you can skip, and possibly twisting your ankle, you need to go step-by-step.

The second you shift your focus from the destination (the second floor) to the first step in front of you, the feeling of being overwhelmed will disappear.

Ask yourself, “What is one step I can take that is aligned with my long-term vision?”